Details
Track Listing
1. Wicked Gravity
2. Three Sisters
3. Day and Night
4. Nothing Is True
5. People Who Died
6. City Drops Into the Night
7. Crow
8. It's Too Late
9. I Want the Angel
10. Catholic Boy
Album Notes
Along with Patti Smith, Jim Carroll helped to revitalize the idea of rocker-as-poet that had lain largely dormant since the late-'60s excesses of Jim Morrison, and like Smith, Carroll made a mark in the literary world before turning to rock. His 1980 debut is rooted in simple, New York punk mixed with Rimbaud-influenced lyricism and a Lou Reed-like sprechstimme. Carroll speaks of the world he knows, the same one depicted in his poems and verse; filled with junkies, whores, and other unsavory characters who play out their doomed roles over a magically surreal, nocturnal urban landscape.
"People Who Died," a catalogue of friends-turned-casualties delivered over Ramones-like backing, became a fluke hit and provided Carroll with his main claim to musical fame, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. "Wicked Gravity" is almost vintage Television, while "Day and Night" and "I Want the Angel" transcend all the seaminess for a scintillating grasp at the divine. Carroll's subsequent output included both song and spoken word, but CATHOLIC BOY is his definitive lunge at the rock poet crown.
Industry Reviews
As befits a poet, the LP is a lyrical feast....The album was hugely influential.
|
|
)
)
All rights reserved.
